


Wave Racing

by BCakes2004



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), Hunk & Lance (Voltron) Friendship, Injury Recovery, Keith & Shiro (Voltron) are Adoptive Siblings, Keith likes to swim fast, M/M, Minor Hunk/Shay (Voltron), Minor Lance/Lotor (Voltron), Protective Shiro (Voltron), klance, lance is a marine biologist, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:28:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26050405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BCakes2004/pseuds/BCakes2004
Summary: Keith is the fastest mer in his pod. He loves pushing himself to his limits, but there's no one else fast enough to challenge him, even his brother Shiro, who makes up for not being as fast by being strong and a good hunter. Keith starts racing boats and trying to outrun and outlast the engine for a more fun race.One day, Keith swims too close to the motor of a boat and it slashes his tail. Keith uses the last of his strength to swim to the shore of a nearby secluded beach before passing out from the pain.Lance, a student in Marine Biology at Altea University, finds the injured Keith and is able to use his knowledge of marine life to treat Keith's tail. Unsure of what else to do, Lance waits with Keith until he wakes up, shocked and confused at Lance's actions but reluctantly willing to accept Lance's help.While Keith heals, Lance takes care of him, but will Lance be able to keep Keith a secret from everyone, including a curious Lotor who seems to want to date Lance but also capture the rumored Red Dragon, aka the fast-moving red sea creature (Keith) that had been reported by the boaters he raced against.Author Note:I will update this randomly and probably not very frequently.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron), Lance/Lotor (Voltron)
Comments: 19
Kudos: 77





	1. Chapter 1

Keith was falling behind the boat he was chasing. Gritting his teeth, he pushed his tail to move faster, faster, faster. Keith was so focused on his speed that he didn't notice his proximity to the boat's spinning motor until it was too late. 

A searing pain exploded in Keith's tail. It didn't take him long to realize what had happened and that he was in big trouble. 

Shiro was going to kill him. He always warned Keith about racing boats, thinking that Keith would get himself captured by a human. Keith always insisted that he was too fast for a human to see him, let alone catch him, but Keith had never predicted something like this happening. 

Keith struggled to keep moving his injured tail. He needed to get to the shore before the pain made him pass out. Mer could hold their breath for hours and hours, but they still needed to surface for air, so getting knocked out in the water was dangerous. Still, it was risky going ashore too. It would be too easy for a human to spot him. Then again, Keith didn't have a choice, so he took the option that gave him a chance of surviving. 

Keith tried to find an isolated part of the beach and swam to it with the last of his energy. As soon as his chest reached a part of the beach that wouldn't be submerged during high tide, he passed out, praying that for once luck would be on his side and no humans would see him. 

*****

Lance McClain was a handsome guy. He wasn't lacking any confidence, which he knew girls found attractive, and of course he was respectful and kind to all his dates. So the question remained: why did none of his dates want to stay with him for more than a few weeks? 

Lance's most recent girlfriend, Nyma, just broke up with him earlier that day over text. OVER TEXT!!! Lance was sad to say it hadn't been the first time, though. Still, it didn't hurt him any less, so Lance was now taking a long walk down the beach while he whined about being alone to empty air. 

Hunk, his best friend and college roommate at Altea University, had grown tired of his ranting and refused to answer Lance's texts or calls anymore, making Lance feel even more lonely. What next? Was Pidge going to ghost him too? No, wait, nevermind--she already ghosts Lance pretty regularly already. 

Lance suddenly noticed something big washed up onshore, only a silhouette against the sunset that was lighting up the horizon.

Lance moved closer to investigate. It could be a beached animal, in which case, Lance could put his marine biologist training to use and possibly help rescue it. Upon closer inspection, however, Lance recognized arms. Human arms, to be exact. 

Lance ran towards the unmoving body before he was hit with yet another surprise. This "human" had a big, red tail that was almost Lance's size by itself. Lance couldn't believe it, but...

Somehow he had found a merman. 

It only took a few seconds to see that the red tail was covered in a darker red layer of blood. A large gash cut down the side of the tail and was bleeding badly. The mer must've blacked out from the pain of the recent injury. 

Lance wanted to panic, but all of the sudden, he kicked into action and started making a plan in his head. He needed bandages to stop the bleeding ASAP, not to mention disinfectant and rubber gloves. Lance could get all those things from a nearby pharmacy. What else, what else? Maybe a towel and some fresh water to keep the tail moisturized while it was out of the water? 

Hunk would be better at this. He was the one training to be an actual medical professional. Who knew if Lance's knowledge of marine life would even be applicable with a merman? After all, from the waist up, he looked perfectly human. But as Lance glanced back at the merman lying there, hurt and unconscious on the beach, he couldn't bring himself to call Hunk. Hunk would want to ask the authorities for help, but Lance could already imagine how that would go. 

This merman would become a science experiment. A specimen in a cage. Or even worse, a specimen on a lab table, being poked and prodded and tortured. There was even the chance that bringing attention to the merman could mean its death. Lance didn't want to risk it. He could do this himself. 

When Lance came back with a bag filled with the things he needed, he was relieved to see the merman still there, just as Lance had left him. 

Lance got to work, carefully moving the tail from being submerged onto a towel horizontal to the water, being surprised at how smooth and light the tail felt in his hands. Lance then used water to clean the blood off the tail so he could examine the wound more carefully. Despite all the blood, the cut didn't actually look all that deep. It must've just been a bad scrape. 

One hour later, the sun had vanished from the sky and Lance was finished. He wasn't sure if the bandages would hold up, but if his patient tried swimming with them on, then there was no way they'd stay on anyway. 

Without a task to focus on, Lance's mind started to go crazy with questions again. Would the merman freak out and try to run away when he woke up? Would he be able to understand Lance? Would Lance be able to understand him? More importantly, would the mer even wake up in the first place? Lance had done his best to stop the bleeding, but he didn't know if there were any other injuries he didn't know about or how long the mer had been laying there being Lance found him. Did the mer have any friends who would be looking for him? Any family? 

Lance sighed as he sat down on the cold sand. There was nothing else he could do except wait. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith wakes up. By the end of the chapter, someone catches feelings.

Keith slowly blinked open his eyes. The sun was bright in the sky, meaning Keith must've been passed out for at least 12 hours. He would need to get back in the water or else his scales would dry out. 

Before Keith could move, however, he realized three important things. One, his scales actually felt perfectly moist, like they had just been splashed with water (but that was impossible because the ocean was now far away due to low tide). Two, his tail felt weird, like it was much heavier and bulkier than it was supposed to be (although Keith wasn't in pain anymore, which seemed like a good sign). Three... 

There was a human sitting right next to him. 

It didn't look like the human had seen him open his eyes. He was absorbed with a small box that kept faintly flashing lights, but Keith didn't plan on waiting around and letting the human try anything with him. 

Keith quickly used his arms to push himself up and drag his body back to the water, but he regretted it immediately. The abrupt movement sent waves of pain down his spine. Even worse, his pained grunt alerted the human. 

"You're awake! Oh, but don't move or you will mess up the bandages I put on your tail. Does anything hurt? Are you hungry? I brought some fish from the supermarket because I didn't know what else you might eat. Can you understand me? Um, I'm Lance. I study Marine Biology so I thought I could try to help you when I found you washed up on the beach. I promise I'll protect you and nobody else knows you're here, so you'll be safe while you heal. Um... can you say something?" the human, Lance, asked quickly and loudly, almost in a single breath. 

The language he spoke was surprisingly the same as Keith's own, but it sounded much less melodious than when mer spoke underwater. 

"I'm Keith," Keith replied bluntly before quickly cursing himself. _Why did he reply?_

Lance's face lit up with a smile. 

"You can understand me! Wow, ok, wow, haha. Well, nice to meet you, Keef." 

"It's _Keith_. Not keef," Keith retorted. 

Dang it, he had talked to the human again. Well, there was no going back, so Keith might as well get some answers. 

"What did you do to my tail? Why is it... white now?" Keith asked. 

"Those are just bandages," Lance replied. "They can be taken off, but right now they are stopping you from bleeding out and dying, so you really shouldn't mess with them until your wound is better or I can get fresh bandages to replace them with." 

Keith pondered his situation. It didn't seem like he had any option other than to let this random human take care of him until he could recover enough to return home. But... how long would that take? And even if this human was trustworthy, how was he going to protect Keith like he had promised? Lance was lean and skinny and didn't seem to be built for physical fighting (unlike Keith), not to mention that Lance didn't appear to be all that tough emotionally or mentally either, considering how frazzled he appeared to be. 

Why did this have to be the one to find me, Keith wondered. 

Still, Keith couldn't deny that his situation could've been much, much worse. The human who found him could've taken him somewhere even farther away from the ocean, trapping Keith and experimenting on his body. Or maybe if Keith hadn't been found at all, he would've bled out and died on the beach and he would've never seen Shiro again. Keith didn't want to admit it, but he was lucky that Lance had found him. 

In exchange for saving his life, Keith decided to let Lance ask him questions. They were mostly technical, like "do you breathe underwater" or "does your tail hurt right now," but there were personal ones too. 

"Do you have any family?" Lance asked, hopeful for the answer to be yes.

"My brother Shiro is basically the only family I've got. He took me in after my parents died in a shark attack. I have a pod, though. Pods are just groups of mer families that live and travel together for safety. It's a small pod with only ten of us," Keith decided to reply with honesty. "Shiro is probably worried about me right now, but I spend nights by myself outside the pod sometimes, so I probably have another day before he sends out a search party to look for me." 

"I'm sorry that you can't tell him where you are, but getting in the water right now will ruin your bandages and you'll just end up bleeding again. If you are super careful and let your tail rest for today, then I'll let you take off the bandages tomorrow morning and if your tail isn't bleeding, you can carefully swim to find Shiro. You have to come back here though so I can make sure it's not infected and doesn't reopen," Lance said authoritatively. He sounded like he knew what he was doing, but Lance was still in a state of mild panic. He just hoped Keith didn't notice. 

Keith, on the other hand, was just happy to hear that he might be able to see Shiro tomorrow. It was strange, though. Lance's confident tone made it seem like Lance had no doubt that Keith would return. But would he? Keith wasn't even sure, but he knew Shiro wouldn't like it. 

"What am I supposed to do all day then, if I can't move?" Keith found himself asking. 

"Why, you get to enjoy my company, of course! I was thinking maybe we could make a sand castle, then I can introduce you to human music and the wonders of dance, then we can--"

"What's dance?" Keith interrupted. 

Lance gasped dramatically, making Keith roll his eyes. 

"Do mer not dance? Dancing is when you move your body around, usually to the beat of a song. Here, I'll show you," Lance replied. 

The box in Lance's hands now started to make sounds and words, but the words were unlike ones that Keith had ever heard. Lance seemed to understand them though because he mouthed out each word and then started to dance along to them. 

Keith was entranced. So this was dance. 

Lance moved like a mer swimming along a current--graceful, quick, and oh-so beautiful. Lance danced circles around the beach, but still was careful not to move where Keith would need to move his body to see him. Lance's whole body moved fluidly together: his feet, his legs, his hips, his arms, his wrists... it was hypnotizing.

Too soon, the song ends and Lance stops the dance. 

"How was that?" Lance asked with a dazzling smile. 

"Beautiful," Keith replied before he could stop himself. "Uh, I mean, thanks for showing me. Dance is cool." 

Lance turned his face away to hide his unexpected blushing, unaware that Keith was blushing too. 

"Would you... like to hear more songs?" Lance asked. After Keith replied with an eager nod, Lance pressed "Shuffle All" on his longest playlist of favorite songs. 

They were on the fifth song, Single Ladies by Beyoncé, when Keith's stomach grumbled loudly. 

"Right! The fish!" Lance exclaimed before scrambling to grab the cooler, which had been hidden in the shade, and bring it over to Keith, who sniffed it curiously. 

"Did you hunt all of these?" Keith asked with admiration in his voice after seeing the full cooler. 

"No, I bought them for money. Other humans catch fish and then sell them to other humans. I didn't know how hungry you'd be so I just got a lot of them," Lance explained, slightly disappointed that he wasn't worthy of the small bit of admiration Keith had shown for him. 

Keith slowly reached inside the cooler while leaning on his elbows, careful not to move the rest of his body. The first fish he grabbed was a tuna, which Keith quickly gulped down. It tasted weird, but at least it filled his stomach. He realized most of the fish were common and small, but even without knowing how money worked, Keith assumed that filling the cooler with Halibut instead of tuna would probably require more currency.

Within minutes, the cooler was empty and Keith was happily full. He grew drowsy from eating so much food and before he even had time to thank Lance for the fish, Keith was asleep. 

**********

This time, when Keith opened his eyes, it was dark out and Lance was nowhere to be seen. All of his belongings seemed to have disappeared too. Just as Keith was about to call out Lance's name, he saw a moving silhouette coming towards him. Keith suddenly panicked. What if it wasn't Lance? Lance had promised he would protect Keith, so where was he? 

Keith trembled in fear, considering whether or not it would be worth it do drag himself to the water despite his wounds, when Lance's voice called out, "Keith! I'm back!" 

Keith breathed a sigh of relief that was quickly followed with a burst of irrational anger. Lance had left him. Why? 

"Why did you leave?" Keith demanded, not bothering to mask the anger in his voice. 

"I needed to buy new bandages and fresh food. I knew it would only take me half an hour so I tried to finish shopping before you woke up," Lance replied, his voice laced with worry and confusion after seeing Keith so upset.

Keith reached out and grabbed Lance's ankle, dragging him to the ground and bringing his face closer to Keith's. 

"Don't leave me again," Keith growled. 

"I won't. I won't leave you again," Lance promised sincerely. Keith would find his brother tomorrow and Lance already had everything he needed until then. He was glad that he had thought to buy another towel for himself so now Lance had something to lie down on. Ignoring the technical side of things, though, Lance decided that he would stay with Keith until Keith didn't need him anymore. Lance sensed the fear on Keith's face before Lance announced himself, even if it was brief, and he didn't want Keith to be scared like that again. Never again. 

"We should probably get some rest," Lance said, breaking the long silence that followed his promise. "I'm exhausted after staying awake for 24 hours watching you, but wake me up if you need anything or want to switch and sleep for a while." 

Keith nodded, but it took him another few seconds before he released Lance's ankle. He watched Lance take a towel out of his bag and carefully lay it down on the sand next to Lance. 

Keith was a little surprised that Lance was choosing to sleep less than an arm's length away from him, but he didn't comment on it as Lance laid down and promptly fell asleep. 

Lance's sleeping face was so peaceful, Keith observed. Unlike Keith, who was constantly alert and a restless sleeper, Lance seemed so relaxed and happy as he slept. Keith even noticed Lance smiling a few times in his sleep from whatever good dream he was having. It made Keith wonder what Lance was dreaming about. 

Carefully, as to not wake Lance, Keith reached out and brushed some of Lance's brown hair away from his tan skin, relishing in the discovery of how smooth Lance's hair felt. Keith suddenly came to his senses when Lance's nose twitched, but luckily he stayed asleep. 

What was Keith doing? More importantly, why was he doing it? Why did Keith want to feel closer to Lance? 

Keith gazed up at the moon, questions filling his curious mind. The moon reminded Keith of Lance the longer he looked at it. It's shining brilliance wasn't blinding like the sun; instead, it was soothing and gentle. It was so beautifully fragile, able to be blocked by the passing of a cloud, but it was also powerful enough to push and pull the seas. It was magical. It was like Lance. 

Keith realized something, then. He liked Lance. Definitely more than he should... And Keith had no idea what he was supposed to do with that information. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I saw that a single person had commented on chapter 1 and that alone gave me the encouragement to post chapter 2. I was actually prepared for not a single person to read or enjoy my writing so thank you to that one person. I'm still in the process of writing chapter three so it might take a little longer for me to post that one though. 
> 
> Thanks for reading and tell me if you like the story so far <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance has a dream and Keith returns home.

Lance’s dream started off normal. He imagined that he was swimming around and playing in the ocean with Hunk and Pidge (although he knew realistically that there was no way Pidge would ever get into what she called the “cold, gross ocean” in real life). They were throwing around a beach ball, enjoying the warm sun shining down on them, and letting the water keep them cool in the heat. Then the dream changed. 

He was all alone in the water except for one person, swimming in place in front of him. Or rather, he was all alone except for one mer. 

Dream-Keith reached out his hand to gently touch Dream-Lance’s face, rubbing a thumb across Lance’s lips. Then Dream-Lance did something even crazier. He leaned into the touch and slightly opened his mouth, allowing Dream-Keith’s finger to slip inside, where Dream-Lance carefully nibbled on it. What was going on? 

Lance’s confusion was so strong that he woke up and was painfully confronted with the glaring sun rising on the horizon. Keith had let him sleep all night. Speaking of Keith… 

Keith was relaxing next to Lance with his head resting in his hand, his back facing Lance and his gaze focused on the crashing waves of the ocean. Even though Lance didn’t want to let the moment end, he reached over to tap’s Keith’s shoulder. They needed to start preparing him to leave. 

Keith spun around quickly in surprise at the contact, but his posture relaxed after recognizing that it was just Lance. 

“Time to check your wound,” Lance said. 

Keith was very accommodating while Lance unwrapped the bandages, raising his tail or shifting his body slightly whenever Lance asked. It was certainly easier to unwrap the bandages than it was to put them on while Keith was unconscious. 

The bleeding had stopped, but Lance knew that Keith would make the cut start bleeding again if he moved around too much. Unfortunately, if Keith was going to meet his brother, it was a risk they were going to have to take. It seemed like Keith understood too. 

“I’ll… be careful,” Keith said reluctantly, like it physically hurt him more to be careful than not. It made Lance laugh, surprising Keith again. 

“I’ll help hold your tail up while you crawl to the water so sand doesn’t get in the wound,” Lance offered. After Keith nodded his head in reply, Lance carefully grasped Keith’s tail and lifted it up slowly. In the daylight and without the bandages, he could admire it more easily. 

It was strikingly red, although it grew slightly darker where the tail split into two fins. Each red scale resembled a ruby in the way it glittered in the sunlight. One scale was only the size of one of Lance’s fingernails (ew, what a gross comparison), which made Lance wonder if Keith would allow Lance to keep one to remind him of this magical encounter. Unfortunately, this only led to Lance thinking again about whether Keith would come back or not. If Keith never showed his face again… Lance didn’t want to think about it, but the thought made his chest hurt, as if it was being tightly squeezed. 

“This is far enough,” Keith said, startling Lance out of his thoughts. Lance hadn’t even realized that his legs were now submerged up to his knees. Luckily, Lance had been barefoot, so his shoes weren’t ruined. 

“Oh, ok. Bye then. Stay safe,” Lance replied lamely. 

Keith gave him a nod and with one more push deeper into the water, Keith’s red tail disappeared beneath the waves along with the rest of him. Even injured and in shallow water, Keith was incredibly fast. 

Lance wasn’t sure what to do now that Keith was gone. Did he just go home as if nothing had happened? Did he stay on the beach in the hopes that Keith would come back sooner than expected (which realistically would probably be some time the next day)? Lance glanced behind him towards where his stuff was gathered in a pile and decided to go home and clean himself up. He felt kind of gross after sleeping on the beach all night. 

Lance took one more look at the ocean before he turned away and started walking back to his dorm. He would come back before the sun went down to see if Keith was there. And if he didn’t come… then Lance would just have to regret ever letting Keith leave. 

**********

Keith was thrilled to be back in the water. He tried to minimize his tail movements and mostly relied on the currents and his arms to guide him through the water, but he was nevertheless able to pick up some speed and was able to return to the pod in hardly any time at all. He spotted Shiro frantically swimming in circles near the reef that marked the entrance into pod territory, saving Keith the trouble of looking for him. Just as he was about to announce his presence, Shiro looked up and noticed Keith on his own. 

“Keith! What happened to you? Where have you been? And what happened to your tail?!” Shiro exclaimed, his voice laced with worry. 

Keith reached his hand up to rub the back of his head, feeling ashamed all of the sudden. How was he going to tell Shiro that he got this injury from racing a boat, when that was something that Shiro warned him not to do again and again? Keith wished that he had bothered thinking of a different excuse while he was on the beach with Lance, but he was understandably distracted. 

“I got too close to a boat’s motor,” Keith admitted honestly. “Before you give me the whole lecture, I already know, and I’m sorry. I’ll be more careful.” 

Keith suddenly thought of Lance, waiting for him on the surface, and the promise that Keith had given him. _I’ll be careful._ The image of Lance’s caring expression refused to disappear from Keith’s mind and made him eager to tell Shiro about everything that had happened, despite Keith’s original desire to slowly work up to it. 

“I met a human. He helped save my life. If he wasn’t there, I might’ve bled out from the cut,” Keith said hurriedly before Shiro could say anything else. “He really seems like a good person. I don’t think he is dangerous. He promised to protect me. And… I need to see him again if I want my tail to heal.” 

Shiro was surprisingly silent. It was almost scarier than if Shiro had started yelling at Keith for his irresponsible behavior. Keith waited patiently for Shiro to say something, anything, but with each passing second, he got increasingly anxious. He had never seen Shiro so… furious? No, Shiro didn’t get furious. He looked scared, almost. Shocked, maybe. Worried? Definitely. But what was that last emotion, hiding within Shiro’s dark grey eyes? 

“I am incredibly disappointed in you, Keith,” Shiro said at last, before surprising Keith with a bone-crushing embrace. Keith gasped as the air was nearly knocked out of him. 

“But I am also so relieved to see that you are safe,” Shiro continued. “I was so worried that something happened to you. Something _did_ happen to you. You got hurt. But at least you are here now.” 

Shiro didn’t let go of Keith for several minutes, and when he did, a strong hand on Keith’s wrist kept him from moving too far away. It wasn’t like Keith really had anywhere else to go, though. 

“I’m sorry,” Keith repeated earnestly. 

Shiro took such good care of him and it made Keith feel tremendously guilty that he made Shiro so worried. Shiro had gotten injured a long time ago, which had resulted in the loss of his right arm, so Keith assumed that he knew exactly how Shiro felt, seeing Keith seriously injured but safe. Although, Keith was pretty sure he reacted much more angrily than Shiro. 

“You said that you need to see him again?” Shiro finally asks. “Then I’m coming with you. I want to make sure for myself that you aren’t in any danger. Also, don’t you dare try to leave before you get some food and rest. I’m sure your new friend can wait until tomorrow.” 

Keith eagerly accepted these conditions, surprised that it was so easy for Shiro to agree to let Keith see Lance again. Then again, Shiro probably suspected that Keith would try to sneak away to see Lance even if Shiro forbade him from leaving, so at least this way Shiro could have more control over the situation. 

“I’m going to find a place to sleep, then,” Keith said. “Do you mind bringing me some fish? I can’t really hunt for myself or else the cut will reopen before tomorrow when I go back.” 

Shiro smiled, seemingly grateful that Keith was deciding to ask for help for once rather than insist on handling everything by himself. 

As Shiro swam away and Keith started to head over to an isolated area within the reeds, Keith let his mind wander once again, and unsurprisingly it didn’t take long for his thoughts to focus on Lance. 

Lance was a mystery. He was cheerful and talkative, obviously, but what else did Keith really know about him? Keith remembered that Lance had mentioned being a Marine Biologist, whatever that meant. 

Did Lance have a family? Did his family protect one another like the members of Keith’s pod did? And what about friends? What kinds of people did Lance hang out with? Was Keith a friend? Was it even fair to call them any more than strangers when they had just met yesterday? 

Keith’s questions distracted him from swimming, so he didn’t realize that he had accidentally swam a little too fast until his tail started aching. A small trail of blood was seeping out from the center of the wound, where the cut was deepest. Lance would probably be disappointed to find out that Keith couldn’t be careful for more than an hour after they parted ways. 

Keith looked around at his surroundings. Even within the pod’s territory, things were spaced out, so Keith’s usual sleeping spot wasn’t near anything or anyone else. There was nothing but deafening silence. 

Keith found himself wishing for more of Lance’s smiles, more of his laughter, more of _him_. Peace and quiet had never felt so depressing before he met Lance. Now, all Keith wanted to do was hear Lance’s voice ramble on about something that Keith probably wouldn’t even understand. 

Unfortunately, Lance was on the surface. And Keith was on the bottom of the ocean. They couldn’t be farther apart. Their worlds were completely separate. 

Rather than continue down that depressing train of thought, Keith huffed and settled down on a patch of reeds. He was tired, and besides, the sooner he became well-rested… the sooner he could see Lance again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This update is a little longer so hopefully that makes up for the fact that it took me a while to upload it! This is probably how frequently I'll be able to update, though (a little longer than a week between each update). Tell me what you think of this chapter in the comments!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance meets Lotor and Shiro.

Hunk was very worried about Lance and didn't try to hide it. The moment that Lance returned to his on-campus apartment, he was bombarded with questions from his roommate. 

Where was Lance yesterday? Where did he sleep last night? Why does he smell like the ocean? Did it have something to do with Nyma? Was Lance hungry and did he want something to eat? 

Lance had to answer that last question honestly because he really was starving and nothing tasted better than Hunk’s home cooked meals. Somehow, Lance was able to redirect the conversation during lunch and didn’t end up revealing anything to Hunk, but Lance knew that Hunk wouldn’t give up until he found out what was going on with his best friend. For the first time, Lance wished Hunk would be a little less eager to talk about Lance and his love life. 

When Lance finally escaped to his room, he decided to take his laptop and do some research. After meeting Keith, Lance wanted to know everything he could about where myth met reality. 

He searched through conspiracy theory videos, blog posts, newspaper articles, and even local social media profiles for any mention of strange sea creatures, specifically a fast red one. Lance wasn’t surprised to find that most of it seemed fake or at least exaggerated. However, there were a few promising finds. 

There was a post on Instagram by a popular (and verified) user whose username was @purpleprince. It looked like this person’s posts were mostly of modeling photo shoots, and Lance could see why. PurplePrince looked really beautiful and dazzling with his long silver hair and his alluring smile. Still, that didn’t explain why PurplePrince’s most recent post was offering a reward for a fast-moving red sea creature spotted by sailors and nicknamed the Red Dragon. It had to be Keith. 

Lance read the post more carefully. _I am willing to pay whomever can give me substantial information about the sea creature known as the Red Dragon_ … 

“Five thousand dollars?!” Lance exclaimed, unable to keep himself from reading the next part out loud. This guy was crazy rich if he could offer that much money just for some information about a creature that wasn’t proven to exist. Then again, Lance already knew that Keith existed, so what if this guy knew too and that was why he was offering so much money for more information? 

Lance was suddenly thankful that he didn’t tell anybody else about Keith. There were too many kinds of people who would want him for their own selfish reasons. 

_Don’t you want him for selfish reasons too?_

Lance shook away that thought. He was helping Keith with his wound! There was nothing selfish about that! And if it meant that Lance would be able to see more of Keith, was that such a bad thing? It’s not like Lance was going to hurt Keith. Lance just wanted to get to know him better. 

“Lance, lunch is ready!” Hunk called from the kitchen. Lance’s stomach growled loudly and he decided that for the rest of the day, there would be no more thinking about Keith. This was even worse than when Lance couldn’t stop thinking about Nyma, and Lance wasn’t even dating Keith! 

_Dating Keith._

The thought repeated in Lance’s mind against his will, before Lance shook his head again and forced his mind to focus on something else, like the smell of Hunk’s cooking from the kitchen. Lance got up from his bed and went to see what marvelous meal Hunk had made, but he utterly failed in keeping Keith out of his thoughts. 

By the time the sun was setting outside Lance’s window, he was practically vibrating with anticipation. Hunk kept questioning Lance about it, but eventually gave up when he accepted that Lance wouldn’t answer any of his questions. 

“Just tell me if you aren’t coming back tonight!” Hunk called after Lance had sprinted out the door, heading straight to the beach. 

Lance didn’t even bother to use the main trail down to the beach from the road. Instead, he jumped over rocks and crunched fallen branches beneath his feet as he sprinted down the hillside. By the time Lance had reached the sand, it was a wonder that he hadn’t fallen or broken his ankle yet. 

Lance was just a few strides away from where he had first seen Keith when he noticed another person was standing on the beach in front of him, looking out into the water. 

The stranger heard his loud approach and turned around, which was when Lance realized that he had seen this person before. That long silver hair was hard to forget, after all. 

“Hello there,” PurplePrince said in greeting. Lance regretted not spending more time trying to figure out this man’s actual name while he was looking through his Instagram account. 

“Hi. Um, I’m Lance,” Lance replied lamely, still a little bit surprised to see someone in what he had started to consider his and Keith’s spot. This part of the beach was thin and usually shady so people didn’t usually come here, especially not when the sun was going down. 

“My name is Lotor. Were you just passing by on a walk? Or am I perhaps interrupting a romantic rondezvous?” the pretty man asked politely. 

“No! I mean, I was just going to sit here, um. I’m not meeting anybody,” Lance lied. 

“May I ask why you were in such a hurry to get here then?” 

“I just really love the beach! You know, the sand, the water, I love it! The beach, I mean. Um,” Lance said in a rush, unable to speak coherently. _Ugh, this is a disaster._

“Does that mean you’re single?” Lotor asked, his tone still so polite and refined. The question was asked in such a nonchalant way that Lance wondered if he had misheard. 

“I’m single, yeah,” Lance replied unsurely, although his thoughts immediately went to Keith. 

“Wonderful. Would you be interested in dining with me tonight, then? I came here feeling rather tired and upset for reasons I’d rather not discuss, but your presence has already made my night so much more pleasant. I would be so grateful if you were to join me,” Lotor offered with a smile. 

Lance was surprised. It wasn’t often that he was the one who got asked out and a small feeling of pride warmed his heart a little. But what about Keith? Lance had planned to wait for him on the beach in case he came back early. What if Keith came back and Lance wasn’t there?

Then a thought occurred to him. What if Keith came back and Lotor was there? If Lance accepted Lotor’s offer, then he could make sure that Lotor stayed away from the beach and away from Keith, at least for that night. 

_I promise I’ll protect you._

Lance had promised to protect Keith and the secret of his existence. He wouldn’t do anything to compromise that, even if it meant that he wouldn’t get to see Keith for a little longer. 

“Sure, let’s go,” Lance said with a smile that he hoped looked genuine. “Where do you want to eat?” 

**********

Keith was not a morning person. His tail wound has started aching during the night and it was even starting to itch now from the sand rubbing against it while he slept, so Keith was not having a good beginning to his day. The morning sky above the surface was cloudy too, making the area where Keith was sleeping cold and unwelcoming. His eyes naturally adapted to darker environments underwater, but that didn’t mean the darkness didn’t affect him. 

“Oh, you’re awake!” Shiro exclaimed when he saw Keith shifting and groaning on the sandy sea floor. “I brought breakfast for you! Unfortunately, with the bad weather we are having, there aren’t that many fish easily accessible near the pod and I couldn’t go too far or else you might run off again.” 

Keith shifted uncomfortably. He couldn’t deny the accusation held truth to it; if Shiro wasn’t going to let him go freely, then Keith had already intended on sneaking away. He hated going against Shiro’s wishes, but sometimes his brother was just too overprotective of Keith. 

“How long have I been asleep?” Keith asked, unable to tell for himself due to the lack of sunlight. 

“It’s been about half a day. You seemed like you needed the sleep, though, so I didn’t want to wake you,” Shiro replied with a shrug. 

Keith tried not to reveal his shock or irritation. How could his body have betrayed him like this? He had planned on only taking a quick nap so that he would be strong enough to quickly return to the surface. Now that so much time has passed, was Lance even waiting for him anymore? Or was his goodbye on the beach going to be the last time he saw Lance’s smiling face? 

Keith forced himself to stop thinking so negatively. Lance wouldn’t just forget about Keith after having promised to protect him. Keith knew that Lance wasn’t a bad person and that he would never do something like that. Then again, Keith had only known Lance for a day. First impressions aren’t often accurate assessments of someone’s character.

“I’m going to see Lance now. I’ll eat on the way,” Keith grumbled as he slowly rose from the sand. The movement sent a striking pain throughout his body, but he just tensed and forced himself to endure it. 

“I’m going with you, remember?” Shiro reminded him, making Keith groan. He had actually been hoping that Shiro would forget that part of their agreement, but Keith knew that there was no way Shiro would let him see Lance again if Keith didn’t comply with this one condition. 

“Fine. Let’s go,” Keith conceded before slowly swimming closer to the shoreline and the surface. Shiro held out a fish to him, which he accepted without comment. 

They swam together in a deafening silence that was only interrupted by the occasional crunch as Keith bit into a piece of fish. Keith suddenly wondered how long it had been since he last swam with his brother. Keith preferred to hunt alone and even Shiro was no exception to his loner tendencies, meaning that they didn’t spend much time together. Even when Shiro made attempts to hang out, Keith would usually reject him and spend his time making trouble near the docks instead. Since when had Keith been such a bad brother to Shiro, who had never done anything except him him? 

Keith started feeling tremendously guilty. Shiro hadn’t even mentioned the fact that Keith had gotten injured from doing something that Shiro had warned him against, although Keith could see the frustration flicker in Shiro’s eyes whenever Keith winced from his tail wound as they swam. What could Keith do to fix this, though? 

“I’m sorry. For being reckless, I mean,” Keith said carefully, not wanting to upset Shiro when they were this close to the beach. If Shiro made them turn around now, Keith didn’t know what he’d do. 

Shiro took a deep breath, as if to calm himself from replying with a rant, and instead just gave Keith a warm smile. 

“I’ll always want to protect you, Keith. You can’t stop me from worrying, even if it is annoying for you sometimes. Believe me, it can be annoying for me too. Sometimes I wonder why I don’t just let you do whatever you want and deal with the consequences. But then, I think about how awful of a brother that would make me. If something happened to you while I wasn’t trying to protect you, then I would feel like it was partly my fault,” Shiro said. When he saw that Keith was about to interrupt, Shiro held up a hand to stop him and then continued. 

“You don’t have to keep apologizing to me. In fact, I don’t want you to keep apologizing. But please. Please, can you promise to be safer for me? No more racing boats?” Shiro asked sincerely. 

Keith quickly nodded. “I promise. I’ll be safer.” 

_I’ll be careful._

Shiro gave Keith a light embrace, oblivious to the fact that Keith was now frozen by the sudden flashback to what he had said to Lance before leaving the beach. Was Lance thinking about Keith too while he was gone? Or was Keith the only one? 

As Shiro let go of him, Keith looked around and realized they were closer to the beach than he had thought. If Keith poked his head out of the water, he would likely be able to see if Lance was there. All fo the sudden, Keith was anxious. What if Lance didn’t show? What if Lance never showed? What if coming here was all just a trap and Lance’s kindness was just an act to make Keith feel vulnerable? 

“I think he’s here,” Shiro said, his voice distorted by the waves because he was speaking from above the surface. Keith hurried to join him and looked at the beach from above the water. 

Lance was there. He had come back. 

Keith abandoned any sense of caution or anxiety and rushed to swim the final distance to the shore, letting Lance notice his red tail flash above the water when he surfaced. 

“Keith!” Lance exclaimed happily at the sight of him. 

Keith had never been so happy to hear his own name before. 

“Lance,” he breathed out in reply, slightly dazed by the realization that Lance was right in front of him. 

“Oh. Um, Keith? Who is this?” Lance asked. 

Keith turned around and saw that Shiro was watching their interaction from a little deeper in the water, but with his upper body now visible above the waves. 

“This is Shiro. I told you about him, remember?” Keith said, gesturing to Shiro in the water. 

“Oh. Hi, Shiro!” Lance called out with a smile. Keith grinned at the mundane reaction. Lance sounded like he was meeting just any random person, not a creature whose existence was a carefully kept secret. 

“He insisted on coming with me. He didn’t trust me to go alone,” Keith said, not bothering to hide the small bit of irritation at his brother for making everything more awkward with his presence. 

“I don’t blame him. Judging from the shape you were in yesterday, he has reason to be worried,” Lance replied, surprising Keith by agreeing with Shiro wholeheartedly. 

Keith could hear Shiro bite back a laugh from behind him and sent his brother a glare. 

“I’m going to go get the bandages! And I bought some more disinfectant and antiseptic cream too,” Lance said, running over to the treeline to grab a bag that he had hidden there. 

“Why did you bother hiding the bag? Didn’t you say that nobody came here?” Keith asked, noticing that Lance was scanning their surroundings as he walked back to the shallow water. 

“Well, usually that’s the case, but yesterday a guy named Lotor came here to this exact spot. I had come here to check if you had come back early, but when I saw him there then I realized that I wasn’t being careful enough, so from now on I’m going to be more cautious about watching for other people,” Lance explained. “Oh, and Lotor apparently is looking for you! He even put out a big reward asking for information about you. Have you been spotted by any other humans?” 

Keith’s heart went from warm to cold in an instant. Lance was trying to keep him safe, but Keith should’ve known that there was nowhere safe for a mer on land. People were always going to be looking for him. As much as he liked seeing Lance--he couldn’t really deny it at this point--Keith wouldn’t be able to continue meeting him like this. It would be too risky. 

“Here,” Keith said as he hoisted himself up onto the sand and offered Lance the injured part of his tail to examine. It would be better for everyone if he just got this over with quickly and then he could disappear back into the ocean again. 

“It looks like it started bleeding again a little. Luckily the cream seems to have done its job, though, because the wound is slowly starting to close up. It seems like your tail also automatically generates this slimy substance that covers your wound and prevents water from mixing with your blood. It would be so fascinating to learn more about you,” Lance contemplated. “Not that I would ever experiment on you! As curious as I am, I know you’re still a person and I would never do anything like that to you.” 

Keith blushed, although he wasn’t even sure what he was getting flustered about. 

“Lance, is it? Has Keith mentioned to you anything about his parents?” Shiro said out of the blue. 

“Yes. He told me they died in a shark attack,” Lance replied, a little startled to hear Shiro speaking to him. His voice was melodious like Keith’s, but it was also much deeper and resonated stronger. 

“They weren’t just killed in a shark attack. They were chased into a den of sharks by a group of human divers,” Shiro said somberly. Lance saw Keith stiffen beside him and knew that it must've been the truth. 

“But… you are different. I understand that,” Shiro said. “I’ve only been around you for a few minutes but I can already tell that you are a kind person, Lance. You won’t let Keith get hurt.” 

“You’re right. I won’t,” Lance replied, matching Shiro’s serious tone. Keith turned to look at him and saw nothing except determination in Lance’s face as he returned Shiro’s gaze. 

Shiro seemed to accept this answer because he nodded and turned to Keith. 

“Stay safe.” 

And with that, Shiro’s head disappeared underneath the water. 

“I guess it’s just us then,” Lance said with a smile and a glance at Keith. 

“Yeah,” Keith replied. 

It was just the two of them now. Alone. On the beach. Together. 

What could go wrong? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a longer chapter since it took me two weeks to write! This is where the background Lotor/Lance comes in, but they don't ever actually get together in this fanfic. Also, I'm rereading Time and Tide by RangoAteMyBaby (for a third time) so I'm filled with creative inspiration--I highly recommend checking out that fanfic on AO3 if you haven't read it already. And happy September!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Keith are worried about each other.

As soon as Shiro left, Lance resumed spreading different kinds of medicine onto Keith’s tail. After he was done with that, Lance took new bandages and wrapped them around the tail, but this time less of them were needed, which Keith was grateful for. Even if he wasn’t going to be swimming around in them, the bandages were very uncomfortable against Keith’s scales. 

“Shiro is nice. He cares a lot about you,” Lance remarked as he finished wrapping Keith’s tail. 

“Yeah,” Keith mumbled in shy agreement. “He’s the best. I’m a bit surprised he was so quick to leave, though. He distrusts humans even more than me, even though my parents were the ones who…” 

Lance nodded sympathetically. Keith was clearly not very comfortable talking about his parents, and yet this is the second time he had mentioned them to Lance. Even though the air was still filled with tension around them, Lance decided to give Keith a small grin, hoping that it would communicate to Keith that Lance appreciated his openness. 

“Maybe he just thinks I’m so scrawny that you could easily take me in a fight,” Lance commented, attempting to use humor to lighten the mood. Keith snickered, so Lance knew that it had worked. 

“You really are so weak-looking, though. How do humans do anything with such tiny limbs?” Keith asked, a bit of curiosity seeping into his voice. Even if he frequently raced boats, that didn’t mean he was crazy enough to be close enough to humans to let them see him or let Keith see them. That meant that Keith truthfully didn’t know much about humans, except that they were dangerous and lived on land. 

“I’m actually a pretty good runner, I’ll have you know,” Lance snapped back playfully. “We might not swim as well as you mer with your big fancy tails, but we can still move fast or be strong! And we have things like boat motors and water jet propulsion that lets us go super fast in the water, too.” 

“Even with all those things, you probably aren’t as fast as me,” Keith said. 

“Is that a challenge?” 

Keith thought to himself for a moment. Now that Lance had mentioned it, Keith really wanted to try racing Lance. Not because it would be hard, but because it would be… fun. 

“Sure. Let’s do it,” Keith agreed. “I’m going to crush you.” 

“Not so fast. First, you have to let your tail heal more. No more racing for at least another few days. And no more going near boat motors! You were lucky this cut wasn’t much worse. Humans have died from similar accidents,” Lance said. 

“I know, but I can at least swim against you at your normal snail pace, right? I doubt I’d even need to use my tail--I bet I could use just my arms to beat you.” 

“Fine. You’re on. Tomorrow morning,” Lance said, accepting the challenge with a competitive gleam in his eyes. “But I’m not going to lose.” 

“If you say so, human,” Keith replied smugly. 

“Now, how about some early lunch? Even if you’ve already eaten, I’m starving!” Lance said, choosing to ignore the taunting tone in Keith’s voice. 

As Lance and Keith ate their food, they continued talking casually about how they each spent their days like they were simply two old friends catching up on each other’s lives. 

Lance learned that Keith’s red scales were inherited from his dad, but that his personality was more like his Mom’s. Keith learned that Lance had a roommate named Hunk who was an amazing chef, but was training to be a pediatrician, which was a doctor for little humans, Lance explained. 

They went back and forth like this and before they knew it, the sky was already a pinkish red and the sun was setting on the horizon. 

“I feel like I could just talk with you forever. You’re a lot of fun to hang out with,” Lance said. 

Keith barely mumbled out a “thanks, you too” before he turned his head away. 

“Don’t forget about our race tomorrow. I’ll be here as soon as the sun rises. Or, if you can see the beach hut’s clock from here, wait until the short hand is near the number 6,” Lance explained, drawing the number six in the sand so that Keith would know what he meant. 

“As if you could swim faster than me with your toothpick legs,” Keith said with a smirk. “If it were you instead of me…” 

Keith stopped himself from finishing that sentence because a terrifying thought just occurred to him. He was about to say,  _ If it were you instead of me, you probably would’ve died from my injury _ . It scared Keith because he knew it was true. Lance was just physically different from Keith. They literally lived in separate worlds. They were so different. And those differences made Lance vulnerable to danger. 

Keith had seen enough of the surface to know that there were just as many dangers on land as there were underwater. At least Keith knew he was a strong predator in the ocean, though. On land, it didn’t matter that Lance said he was a good runner. Life was unpredictable and if one day Lance didn’t return to the beach because he was involved in an accident--or worse--there would be nothing Keith could do about it. 

“Hey, buddy, what’s wrong?” Lance asked worriedly. “You suddenly got all quiet there. What’s up?” 

“Nothing,” Keith grunted. “See you tomorrow morning. Don’t be late.” 

Lance watched in confusion as Keith pushed himself into the shallows and hurriedly escaped any further conversation. Lance wanted to chase Keith down and demand answers, but like Keith, he understood that the two of them lived in separate worlds and that where the water began, Lance’s power ended. 

The ocean was filled with the unknown. Unknown biomes, unknown creatures, unknown dangers. So many things existed that could hurt Keith down there, but if anything happened to Keith while he was injured and alone, there would be nothing Lance could do about it. Lance wouldn’t even be able to know if anything had happened if Keith simply failed to show up one day, unless Shiro decided to let him know. Lance doubted that Shiro would have the energy or courage to risk going to the surface to deliver devastating news, however. 

“Goodbye,” Lance whispered partly to himself, partly to Keith. There was no response, of course. The abyss never answered back. When it did, that’s when you had a more serious problem.

Lance’s phone started vibrating in his pocket. The name on the screen filled his heart with an even bigger sense of dread. In that moment, Lance made a decision. 

Keith was strong and could handle himself in the ocean. Lance had to believe that or else he would crumble. However, there was one danger that Lance could do something about. 

He wouldn’t let anything happen to Keith. No matter what. 

Lance answered the phone. 

“Hey Lotor.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! This is my first time publishing to AO3 so hopefully it's good and people like it. Even if Voltron is over, reading Klance fanfics is still fun so I thought I'd try writing one. Shoutout to Time and Tide on AO3 for making me obsessed with Mermaid AUs again. 
> 
> I might not continue this if I get too busy or if I don't end up liking the idea anymore, but I'll keep updating if people like this!


End file.
